After-School Activities Make Educational Inequality Even Worse

[xchrom]

http://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2013/11/after-school-activities-make-educational-inequality-even-worse/281416/



It’s not just what happens inside the classroom that determines a child’s status as an adult. Accomplishments outside the classroom can be just as influential. Yes, a basic public education is in principle free to all (though of course quality correlates with property values). But activities outside of school are not free, so they largely benefit already advantaged kids. While we talk a lot about inequalities between the rich and the poor, and the role school quality plays in perpetuating class divisions, one often overlooked factor is the opportunities middle- and upper-middle-class kids get to strengthen their life skills through organized competitive activities outside of the school system.

I spent 16 months on soccer fields and in dance studios and school basements, conducting nearly 200 interviews with parents, children, teachers, and coaches associated with competitive chess, dance, and soccer. Millions of American children engage in these three competitive after-school activities each year (travel soccer alone has over 3 million children playing on U.S. Youth Soccer teams), in addition to a multitude of other athletic and artistic options from music competitions to tennis to shooting.

The group of 95 families I met almost all belong to the broadly defined “middle class,” although a few were lower-income and many were upper-middle class. Training a lens on more affluent families helps us understand how and why the professionalization of children’s competitive after-school activities has become an important way that the middle class has institutionalized its advantage over others.

Parents identified five skills they want their children to learn through participation in competitive after-school activities that help develop the “all-around (wo)man” in the 21st century. Together, I call these skills “Competitive Kid Capital;” this Competitive Kid Capital helps distinguishes middle- and upper-middle class children from their less fortunate peers as they compete in various credentialing tournaments that will determine their place in the socio-economic hierarchy as adults.

[get the red out]

1. I am reminded

I do not have kids, but this reminds me of when, many years ago, a co-worker sat down in my office and began to cry. She was a single mom with a loser ex and she was scared to death that her two kids would be overlooked at school because she had neither the time nor money to have them involved in as many activities as the kids from more affluent homes whose mothers were stay at home mom's who worked tirelessly shuttling their kids to everything they could get them into.

[dembotoz]

2. my senior in high school has been involved with Destination Imagineation for several years now

his team has done well and made it to global finals several times.

DI's impact on his life has been completely positive and i would and do recommend DI to anyone.

Sometimes i think di was as much benefit to him as was sitting in the damn high school classes.

[kiva]

3. My niece has three kids in a variety of activities.

She, her parents, and (to a degree) the kids' father and stepfather have pitched to support these activities. They have volunteered at the snack bars, driven teams to gyms and playing fields across the state, and paid a lot of money for camps and coaching and lessons. They have access to buddy passes for a few airlines and use them to cheer the kids on in tournaments and plays. This has all resulted in a flurry of scholarship offers to the older two (high school seniors) and will likely do so for the younger one also.

I have absolutely no idea how anyone without a strong (and fairly affluent) support system does it.

[surrealAmerican]

4. I don't think the point is the competitive aspect of some of these activities.

Access to all sorts of extra-curricular activities is based on the parents' ability to pay. Wealthier children benefit as much from learning to play the violin as they do from youth soccer, and both those activities exclude many poorer children.

[LWolf]

5. Outside of school activities.

There are "after school activities" run at, and by schools, which are open to all. They tend to be under-funded and under-staffed, and maybe not as effective as the kinds of activities that are available outside of school.

And yes, those activities naturally sort students by parent income and ability to transport, volunteer, etc..

Which is why I've always advocated for all kinds of enrichment activities IN school.

What are the advantages that those outside of school enjoy? Smaller groups of children, more adults per child for each group, abundant parental support and involvement, and funds.

We need to have those same things for all of our programs, academic and other, in schools as well.

The recent push for after school programs at school is a good idea, with a bunch of flaws. My school has an after school program with great things and serious flaws, as well.

The flaws:

It's funded by a grant. That grant is up this year. If we can't write another grant and get someone else to fund it, it's gone after this year. No reliable funding.

That grant has some stiff requirements; the first hour MUST be tutoring, only tutoring, offered to those whose test scores aren't up to par. No enrichment allowed. Nothing more flexible allowed. No extra help on what is already being taught in class, for example; it must be some sort of standardized program targeting test scores in addition to the instruction happening in class.

The tutoring has to be done by teachers. They get paid. After a full work day, which requires more hours than are in their contract already, those who volunteer to tutor get to do so at an hourly rate that is a small fraction of their regular rate. This leads to teacher burnout.

The enrichment can be done by teachers or other people hired to do so who are willing to show up for an hour a day, four days a week, an hour after school ends. It can be hard finding people willing to do this on a regular basis. The day is long, and by that time most school employees are exhausted and ready to go home. Some of the programs we'd like to offer require specialists that aren't available.

The great things:

The kids just stay at school until they're done, and there is a bus to take them home after the 2nd hour ends, so parents don't have to make a special trip to pick them up. Of course, this also means that parents don't have to be involved, which is also a drawback.

They get fed after school before tutoring starts.

Some kids who need the academic support are getting it in small, intensive groups.

Enrichment includes things like Chess Club, sports, choir, and lego robotics. We've explored a Destination Imagination group and some other things that require extra funding, but have to find extra funding. We'd like art, band, and dance, but can't find anyone qualified to teach it. There is also a "homework club" the first hour for those who don't qualify for tutoring; they can get homework done while they wait for their enrichment class; and a "homework club" during the second hour for those doing tutoring whose parents also want them to get their homework done.

Kids who have no stable environment at home get fed again, and get a couple more hours of safe, structured adult attention.

[cali]

6. thanks for this post.

[MissB]

7. Yep. $350 per sport.

And jazz band (before school) is $300. Those are per term prices, so 2 kids x 3 sports + 2 kids x 3 terms of jazz band = lots of money each year that I get to spend on my kids for enrichment. Yes, it puts them at an unfair advantage over kids from less affluent families in other districts.

And some of the more selective colleges like to see extra curricular activities when applying to college. Totally unfair.

[Fumesucker]

8. There is a large football/soccer/softball complex right up the road from me

It's basically deserted except for when there is an organized competitive event at which point the large parking lot is packed, even to the point of having RVs in the parking lot for the entire weekend.

There aren't even any sidewalks for local kids to get to the facility and make use of it informally.

[LibertyLover]

9. In the 4th grade

my daughter asked to take flute in school. We agreed and went off to rent her a flute. What we didn't know was that she had and has a talent for music. She loves it. We were very lucky to find a good teacher close to home and so shortly after she started lessons in school they were being supplemented by a half hour of private lessons each week. It's not much - many of her friends do much more outside of school that we just can't afford to do - but at least I can give her something she likes. It's especially important to her now because her middle school music teacher is a marionette and a prick. The only reason the kid stays in band is because she wants to play in the high school band. Her private lessons are what are keeping music fun for her. We are hoping that in January she'll try out for CYO - Chesapeake Youth Orchestra - and start playing with them, making her in-school music a small and insignificant part of her musical life. But I do have to say that the only reason we can do this is because my husband is a house-husband while I'm the breadwinner. We make do without some things we might want so that the kid gets an opportunity to play the music she loves.